Peasant paintings lead young people back to their hometowns

Jiang Haijie's work "Joyful Yangyang". Courtesy of respondents

"The characteristics of peasant paintings are that the image is simple, the color is bright, the composition is full, the shape is exaggerated, and the real story of our regional culture, the people, and the imprint of the development of the times are all painted." Jiang Haijie said.

Jiang Haijie is a young peasant painter from Dongfeng County, Liaoyuan City, Jilin Province, who began to study peasant painting in 2004 and has painted more than 200 works so far. Of these, he is most proud of "Joyous", which was exhibited at United Nations Headquarters in 2014.

"Joyful" is based on yellow and red, depicting 5 magpies and 9 sheep. Jiang Haijie explained that sheep mean auspicious, magpies mean festive, and the days of the people are getting better and better. "Peasant painting is 'painting the sky, painting the earth, painting myself, painting mountains, painting water, painting nostalgia', and I want to interpret the changes in the countryside I see with auspicious animals and express the joy in my heart." Jiang Haijie said.

The exaggerated shape of the ink and color comes from the careful observation of life

Toho Peasant Painting is a native art form in the Kanto region, from budding to maturity, over a century. In the 1970s, Li Junmin, Li Junjie, Zhang Yuyan, Yao Fenglin and more than a dozen other farmers in Dongfeng County spontaneously organized painting groups to depict the daily life of their hometown with their pens, opening a new era of Dongfeng peasant painting.

As one of the partners of China Youth Daily's "Warm One Square", more than 100 lifelike peasant paintings in the Dongfeng County Chinese Peasant Painting Museum silently tell the story of what happened on this black land.

In the prologue hall on the first floor of the museum, there is a large-scale peasant painting "Kanto Beauty" with a length of 16 meters and a height of 3 meters, which is divided into six parts, including a beautiful and rich hometown, colorful folk art, and hard-working and brave people, which was created by Li Junmin, Li Junjie and more than 20 other peasant painters over a year.

Jiang Haijie told the China Youth Daily and China Youth Network reporter that Dongfeng peasant paintings are inseparable from Manchu pillow embroidery, paper cutting, color shed painting and other folk culture. "In particular, the color shed painting is very characteristic of the northeast regional culture. In the past, most of the houses where peasants lived were made of yellow mud, and after a long time, or the winter was particularly cold, the walls would crack, and for beauty and decoration, many folk craftsmen painted on the wall or on the roof of the shed. "Kanto Beauty" paints these rich folk cultures. ”

The "Warm One Square" of China Youth Daily was stationed in the Chinese Peasant Painting Museum in Dongfeng County

Under the exaggerated shape of thick ink and heavy color, the vast number of peasant painters have carefully observed life. Before working in the art museum, Lü Yanchun served as a soldier. After coming into contact with peasant painting, Lu Yanchun organically combined comics with them to create a unique peasant painting style.

"In the past, I didn't dare to think about it, but Xiao Kang listened to people, but now that the peasant family is rich, I am very grateful to the party." Lü Yanchun used his work "New Look of Hometown" with a few words to depict the new changes in the countryside in recent years. In the painting, the peasants engaged in breeding, contracted to households, and embarked on the road to prosperity: "Contracted to every household, the family can't stay idle, from morning to late, running to the road of prosperity"; the peasants' clothing, food, housing, and transportation have also been greatly improved: "There is no oil for lighting lamps, no cattle for farming, there is no need for cattle, there is no need for living on the second floor, and the township roads have been paved with oil"; local specialties have been sold to the tables in the city through the network: "The villages and villages have entered the factory, the products have been put on the Internet, the sales channels have been opened, and the international has had an impact"; science and technology have changed the lives of the peasants: "The school has built a new house. After the material needs were satisfied, the peasants began to pay attention to the construction of spiritual civilization: "Amateur life is good, bodybuilding and dancing, paper-cutting peasants have drawn, and there are many awards" ... At the end of "Hometown New Look", Lu Yanchun did not forget to invite everyone to Dongfeng for sightseeing.

When the farmer is busy, he wields a hoe to plant the land, and when the farmer is idle, he takes a pen to write freehand

Talking about his own experience of learning painting, what makes Jiang Haijie most memorable is the bits and pieces with his mentor Li Junmin. Once, Li Junmin took Jiang Haijie to tutor several peasant painters. It was raining heavily that day, and when they came back, the river had flooded the bridge deck, and the two men pulled up their pants legs and waded across the river, and their shoes were washed away. "At that time, learning from the teacher was bitter and sweet, and it felt very fun."

In 2007, Jiang Haijie's father contracted stomach cancer. Unable to do manual work after the operation, his father painted with him. In the creation, the father and son became painting friends, and they would bluntly criticize and inspire each other. "Farmer painting changed my destiny, my father also because of painting, the mentality is positive and optimistic, and now the body is still very healthy, I feel very happy." 」

In June 2017, Jiang Haijie went to Jinsheng Village in Dongfeng County as the first secretary of the village, and at the same time brought the peasant painting and this happiness there. He led the villagers to paint 188 cultural walls, with a total area of more than 1,000 square meters. "There are some villagers who have a good control over the scenes of rural life, but they lack the technology of painting, so I will help them make up for the shortcomings." At the same time, the peasants' paintings on the walls also played a social propaganda effect of the peasants' paintings. ”

When the farmer is busy, he wields a hoe to plant the land, and when the farmer is idle, he takes a pen to write freehand. Some art lovers have joined Imakatsu Village's creative team. "Painting peasant paintings also enhances everyone's aesthetics and ability to discover and explore the scenes and details of life." Jiang Haijie said.

Thanks to the active help of the Youth League County Committee, he won the honorary title of Young Craftsman of Jilin Province. In recent years, Dongfeng peasant painting has gradually changed from the self-entertainment of farmers to a cultural industry with local characteristics, which has also attracted more and more young people.

Xu Bingbing, secretary of the Tuandongfeng County Party Committee, introduced that the Tuandong County Committee has carried out various forms of peasant painting experience promotion activities, providing a competition platform for young people to better participate in the inheritance of peasant painting. The "Sunshine helps the disabled" love activity gives deaf and mute children the opportunity to contact peasant paintings and express their hearts through works; peasant painting studios, entrepreneurship parks and other places have set up peasant painting studios... Peasant painting is booming in Dongfeng.

"Dongfeng's cultural and creative enterprises are very active, and many young people who have returned to their hometowns are engaged in the cultural and creative industry, which is also the direction of our future work of serving young people." We welcome more young people to return to their hometowns for employment and entrepreneurship. The Business Park attracts a lot of returning college students every year, and we have won employment policies for them. In the future, we want to develop a farmer painting youth experience box, open up the farmer painting market through industrialization services and commercial services, and better promote farmer painting into a larger platform. Xu Bingbing said that he hopes that through the "warm one square" platform initiated by China Youth Daily, Dongfeng's cultural and creative products and cultural and creative practices will be promoted to the whole country, communicate with everyone, find like-minded partners, and have a "warm BaoBao".

Source: China Youth Daily client